According to Kurt Vonnegut, a twerp is a guy who:
(
1) sticks a set of false teeth up his
butt and bites the buttons off the back seats of taxicabs. (Not to be confused with a "
snarf");
(2) hasn't read either Ambrose Bierce's "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" or Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America".
"Do you know what a twerp is? When I was in Shortridge High School in Indianapolis 65 years ago, a twerp was a guy who stuck a set of false teeth up his
butt and bit the buttons off the back seats of taxicabs. (And a
snarf was a guy who sniffed the seats of girls' bicycles.)
"And I consider anybody a twerp who hasn'
t read the greatest American short story, which is "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", by Ambrose Bierce. . . . It is a flawless example of American genius,
like "Sophisticated Lady" by Duke Ellington or the Franklin stove.
"I consider anybody a twerp who hasn't read "Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville. There can never be a better
book than that one on the strengths and vulnerabilities inherent in our form of
government."
-- Kurt Vonnegut, in "A Man Without a Country".